Combination of Bypassing Stomach and Vagus Dissection in High-Fat Diet-Induced Obese Rats—A Long-Term Investigation

Gastric bypass is the most popular technique in obesity therapy. We hypothesize that bypass surgery can help to control the body weight in morbid obesity, and this effect can be enhanced by vagus dissection.

Thirty-six Wistar rats were used in this investigation. They were randomly allocated into six groups. Rats in the gastric bypass group (GB1 and GB2) and the bypass with vagus dissection group (VD1 and VD2) received surgery. Rats in the control group (CO1 and CO2) received sham operation. Twenty days later, rats in the CO1, GB1, and VD1 groups were killed and data on body weights, food intakes, fasting glucose, plasma ghrelin and leptin levels, and GHS-R1a and leptin receptor protein expression in the hypothalamus were collected and summarized. One hundred days later, rats in the CO2, GB2, and VD2 groups were also killed and the same experiments were repeated.

Body weights of rats were 258 ± 4.2 and 232 ± 2.4 g in the GB1 and VD1 groups, respectively, much lower than the CO1 group (303 ± 6.9 g). Body weights of rats were 316 ± 12.3 and 315 ± 10.3 g in the GB2 and VD2 groups, respectively, much lower than the CO2 group. Food intake in the VD1 group was lower than in the GB1 group, while there were no statistical differences between the VD2 and GB2 groups. Fasting glucose in the GB1 and GB2 groups was much lower than the CO1 and CO2 groups. Plasma ghrelin concentrations were much lower in the GB1 and VD1 groups compared to the CO1 group. One hundred days after surgery, the ghrelin concentrations in the GB2 and VD2 groups were also much lower than the CO2 group. Leptin concentrations decreased significantly with weight loss after bypass surgery. GHS-R1a protein expression in the hypothalamus was much lower in the GB1 and VD1 groups compared to the CO1 group. GHS-R1a protein expressions in the GB2 and VD2 groups were lower than the CO2 group. There were no statistical differences in leptin receptor expression in the hypothalamus (not shown).

Vagus nerve dissection is effective on body weight control in the early stage, but not in the long term. The hypothalamus is important in weight control by modulating ghrelin and leptin expressions. Bypass surgery can modulate the expression of ghrelin and its receptor. Leptin is also modulated by bypass surgery.